Trump’s ravings about Afghanistan consistent with genocidal US history: Scholar

US President Donald Trump’s ravings about Afghanistan are “consistent with the barbaric actions of the US throughout its genocidal history,” according to Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

On Tuesday, Trump once again boasted that he could “win” the Afghanistan war "in a week" without using nuclear weapons, further insisting that the effort “would have to” involve killing 10 million Afghans.

“As I’ve said, and I’ll say it any number of times – and this is not using nuclear – we could win that war in a week if we wanted to fight it, but I’m not looking to kill 10 million people,” Trump told reporters in the White House.

“I’m not looking to kill 10 million Afghans, because that’s what would have to happen, and I’m not looking to do that,” he added, without elaborating on how he would accomplish the swift conclusion of the US military’s about 18-year war on Afghanistan.

US-led forces invaded war-ravaged Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called ‘war on terror’ campaign to purportedly rid the country from terrorism.

Commenting to Press TV on Wednesday, Etler said, “It's easy to dismiss Trump’s statements about Afghanistan as the ravings of a madman. But, they are not inconsistent with previous statements made by US presidents which have indeed led to the mass slaughter of millions in Korea, Southeast Asia, Central America and the Middle East.”

“US rhetoric in the past has called for bombing Vietnam back to the Stone Age and who can forget George W. Bush's declaration of ‘shock and awe’ regarding the bombing of Iraq,” he said.  

“No. Trump's vicious rhetoric is nothing new. It is consistent with the barbaric actions of the US throughout its genocidal history,” he added.

“There is more to Trump's bombast and bluster however. It conceals something more sinister, and that is the attempt to turn its erstwhile adversary, the Taliban, into a new surrogate in South Asia.  The US now appears willing to let bygones be bygones so long as it can enlist the Taliban as a force willing to enforce US hegemony in the region,” he noted.

“Making a deal with the devil is an old US policy. In exchange for a return to power the Taliban allows the US to maintain a presence in Afghanistan and refrains from allowing attacks against its new sponsor from rival terrorist gangs,” he stated.

“That at least is what the US is offering them. Will the Taliban bite at the bait?” the analyst asked.

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